Neuroscience and brain science are related.
Have you ever had a great idea before you fell asleep, only to forget it the next morning? There is a reason for that.
A new study published in the journal Science Advances shows that humans experience a "creative sweet spot" in the moments before we fall asleep. It occurs during a sleep phase called N1, which is a non-rapid-eye movement sleep stage.
This phase puts the mind in a state of limbo between sleep and wakefulness called hypnagogia, and it could hold the key to helping us come up with good ideas.
Delphine Oudiette, a neuroscientist at the Paris Brain Institute and co-author of the study, told Scientific American that she has had a lot of hypnagogic experiences. Almost no scientists have studied this period in the last two decades.
The authors of the study based their experiment on a famous technique used by Thomas Edison, who is said to have napped while holding a ball in each hand. The balls fell to the floor as he fell asleep. He was able to recall bright ideas using this method.
The Paris Brain researchers presented a group of study participants with math problems. The participants were given a break during which they were allowed to relax in a reclined position. The participants were asked to tell the researchers what they were thinking if the object fell. The math problems were given to them again.
The authors found that those who reached N1 sleep were three times more likely to solve the problems than those who stayed awake. The participants who slipped into deeper N2 sleep were six times more likely to solve the problem than the N1 sleepers.
Oudiettes said that Alexander the Great and Albert Einstein may have used the same technique. Some of the dreams that have inspired great discoveries could be hypnagogic experiences.
Go on. Take a nap with a tennis ball. You might be inspired to create some great work after that.
The Napping technique was developed by Thomas Edison.
Scientists don't think marketers are trying to inject ads into dreams.
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